Dudes - it's been like six months since I updated this journal!

Things that've happened since then:

- I went through a bloody awful depression for a few months;
- Dealing with this forced me to confront some of my issues and insecurities and I've emerged a clearer, stronger, happier person;
- I lost some friends but gained some amazing new ones;
- I chose to step down from my Gallery Director position at DA due primarily to the first item on this list;
- I got a new job as a Graphic Artist for the gaming industry;
- After mutually but seperately working through stages of sadness, anger, Totally Ignoring One Another and Being Just Friends, Joe (*IncB) and I got back together, which surprised no-one but us.

Where I'm at now:

- Not doing much art outside of work (sorry guys!) due to focusing on writing for a change;
- Still a Westender, and will be for another year or so;
- LOVING my job. Feeling creatively challenged and surrounded by fun, fascinating, amazing people. Absolutely loving it!
- Loving my friends more than ever.

Life is good.

Hi guys;

A quick and apologetic update from me - if you've sent me a DD suggestion recently, and I haven't read it, please forgive me: after a recent stuffup from our ISP, we've ended up on Dialup until the 3rd of November.

Until then, loading pages on dA is near-impossible to do with any sort of efficiency, so I'm sitting on a lot of notes right now, saving them for later.

As always, if you have questions or issues, I'll continue to address those right away. (I've been asked some really interesting, challenging questions lately, actually - those are great fun, keep them coming!)

Thanks guys;

~Tania

(and ironically, available...)

On top of running my business, trying to secure office space at the right price, getting finance approved on the loan for the block of land I'm buying on Macleay Island and doing the conveyancing for said block myself, my longtime partner *IncB and I broke up today.

I'm not going to be around for a few days but please keep sending your DD suggestions as normal, and don't be worried if it takes me a little while to get to them - I never delete a note without reading it and following the links first.

Thanks guys.

~T

Just briefly: I'm looking for someone local (Brisbane) looking to share professional office space. You'd get an office room to yourself plus shared use of the reception area, kitchen, and the building's shared facilities. My business would cover electricity but you'd have to have your own phone connected.

Would suit someone in the creative industries or personal services, ie photography, accounting, web / graphic design, etc.

Office is located on Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill, about a minute's walk from Central Station.

Price would be $175 / week negotiable. If you're interested, please Note me.

* * *

In other news, no DD today - as it turns out, the DD I selected was referenced from existing images so I had to strip it just a couple of hours into the day. Unfortunately I've no way of knowing if an image has been referenced or not unless someone links me to the original, but should I find out that an image is a copy, I will not hesitate to not only remove the DD, but to Report it for copyright violation too.

LET THIS BE A WARNING T' YE, YA SCALLYWAGS!

Le sigh. The hazards of being the Fan Art GD...

~Tania

Recently in an AR update ^guruubii posted "project un-named". The Plan: To start a Community Communications Web for deviantART.

We Gallery Directors do our best to create and share as much information as we can. We try to guide people down the right paths here on dA, but sometimes our reach falls a little short. Artists Relations is constantly buzzing with activity. We are always looking for ways to better serve this massive community and sometimes we fall, sometimes we hit a home run, and sometimes - we just don't see you at all. Some of the communities within this community are small, but they are as important as the whole community. We need a connection point. That connection point is you - the community.



The Gallery Directors role is to create a link between you and the administration.

With the New Gallery Directors being part of the team for only a year at a time now, its important to create some concrete connections within the community so when new Gallery Directors join, there isn't wasted time building connections or finding those loose threads. Most every community/ sub-community on this huge and complex site have key members. These key members are really active, very educated and highly prominent artists. They are out there. We know of some of them. They are invaluable to the Gallery Directors to keep us informed of anything going on. Project: Community Outreach is meant to expand on that. make it more official, make it function and make it benefit the community.



We need you to get this going. Anyone can volunteer, and hopefully the prominent members of the community will participate. That doesn't mean lots you need a lot of page views, it means someone who knows their art, is knowledgeable, honest, and understands the categories of DA and most importantly - has the communities interests in mind! While this is not an official AR position, it will serve to be an important part of AR. You as a deviant ideally would be around to keep the Director of their particular gallery updated on any issues, complaints and praise from their sub communities. The idea being to extinguish the spark before it becomes a conflagration. These problems could be as simple as saying "Hey, GD this little subcategory is overflowing with miscats" or "Hey, we could use a contest for our type of art" or something as grand as a torrent of journals all angry about administrative action, that is threatening to get out of control. So you would be essential for 'Damage Control' Help us get to the trouble spots and make things right so no one has to deal with the stress or hurt feelings. Please keep in mind though, Gallery Directors do not deal directly with policy, theft, copyright. GDs deal only with the cleaning and maintaining of the galleries, and the communities. Please report violations the normal way, using the Report Policy Violation link located under the favorites counter on each deviation.

We would also like that you be talent scouts for the community. Help us by finding the really exceptional artists and bring them to our attention, especially the unknown ones.

1. Keep The AR team / the Gallery Director informed on the issues or praise within the sub communities
2. Keep up to date with news and policies
3. Spread education not rumors.
4. Help keep the community updated to news and changes within the gallery
5. Reporting miscatagorized deviations and alerting the Gallery Directors to problem/unattended areas

Anyone can do these things of course, we encourage it, but stand out! Show us that you can be relied on for the GD's! Be someone we as Gallery Directors can go to and ask "How is everything?" and get a solid informed answer. You build up your reputation by being an active and integral part of the community. The best way to become part of this project is to build up a good reputation with your GD.

A special note for my Fan Art homies (as you may have noticed that the above is a form-letter of sorts!): There are already some of you who do some of the above in an unofficial capacity. You are the ones checking galleries and reporting Miscats. You're the ones Noting me when you see something going wrong that I've missed. You're the ones who see a question asked in comments and are there with a ready answer and a link to the FAQ long before an admin ever sees it.

It's guys and gals like you who should be volunteering for this. You're already doing the work. Why not step up and be recognised for it?